Speaker: Yvette Garcia, Associate Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program
Please introduce yourself, your job title and your degree. What led you to work at Asbury Seminary? Share your story.
Yvette Garcia: Greetings as Barns. I'm Yvette Garcia. I am the associate director of the Doctor of Ministry program. I have a phd from Baylor University in this Department of Religion where I studied the History of Christianity and a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. I came to Asbury, particularly the doctor of Ministry program because I wanted to do something that was in academia but still made a kingdom difference. I wanted the job that I do in my work to actually matter for the kingdom.
Take us through a typical day in your role at the seminary. What are some tasks or challenges you encounter regularly?
Yvette Garcia: So you wanna know about a typical day? Well, or maybe you don't want to know about a typical day, but that's what the prompt says to tell you about a typical day. So I'll do that. I am the academic advisor for all the DM students. So that means helping students understand their timelines, guiding students. Um, like I coach some students for on their dissertations or I'll help connect students with a coach if a student should happen to get off course and fail a class, which we never want to happen. But in reality, it does happen. Occasionally we make sure that they're on the right degree plan. That's the typical kind of, uh work day that I have, which means I answer a lot of emails. I answer a lot of emails.
What's a common misconception people might have about your role or the work that happens at the seminary, and how would you clarify it?
Yvette Garcia: What's a common misconception that somebody might have about my role over here? I think people might think we're always serious and that this can just be bogged down in work and we do have plenty of work to do. But the DM office is a dynamic environment and we work well together, we have fun doing our job and collaborating as a team.
If you had to describe your role at the seminary using a fictional character, who would it be and why?
Yvette Garcia: Oh, I so love this question. The question is if you had to describe your role at the seminary using a fictional character, who would it be and why? And mine would be Mr Spock from Star Trek, the original series as associate director, I'm essentially the first officer, which is the role Spock played in growing up. I always wanted to be a Vulcan.
Can you share a personal story that has had a significant impact on your spiritual journey and how it relates to your work here?
Yvette Garcia: So a personal story that's impacted my spiritual journey and relates to my work here is in seminary working on my master's degree. Um I learned about Blaise Pascal and his Night of Fire and how Pascal had this co combination of faith and reason, how the heart and the head matter. And the day I learned about Pascal, I went home on the way home, I stopped and picked up a copy of the Ponce. And that has been something that I've wa a way I've wanted to live since I read that it and learned about Pascal's life. So the combination of faith and reason of, of living in informed passionate faith has been something that had a profound impact on me and that I would want to influence how I work and how I work with others.
